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First Record of Epophthalmia Frontalis from Central India (Insecta: Odonata: Macromiidae)

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First Record of Epophthalmia Frontalis from Central India (Insecta: Odonata: Macromiidae) Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 63 (2): 127–130 (2020) doi: 10.3897/travaux.63.e52897 SHORT COMMUNICATION First Record of Epophthalmia frontalis from Central India (Insecta: Odonata: Macromiidae) Ashish D. Tiple1, Arajush Payra2 1 Post Graduate Department of Zoology, Vidyabharti College, Seloo, Wardha, Maharashtra 442104, India 2 Ramnagar, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal 721441, India Corresponding author: Ashish D. Tiple ([email protected]) Received 4 April 2020 | Accepted 11 June 2020 | Published 31 December 2020 Citation: Tiple AD, Payra A (2020) First Record of Epophthalmia frontalis from Central India (Insecta: Odonata: Macromiidae). Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 63(2): 127–130. https://doi. org/10.3897/travaux.63.e52897 Abstract Epophthalmia frontalis, a new Macromiidae dragonfly for Central India, is recorded from Seoni of Madhya Pradesh based on a collection of a single male. In India, earlier, this species was only known from a few places of Western Ghats and Eastern India. Diagnostic characters with closely resemble species and field photographs are given. Keywords New Record, Epophthalmia, Madhya Pradesh In the Indian fauna, family Macromiidae Needham, 1903 has 17 species represent- ed by only two genera i.e. Epophthalmia Burmeister, 1839 and Macromia Rambur, 1842. Genus Epophthalmia was first proposed by Burmeister in his well know vol- ume “Handbuch der Entomologie” in 1839 (Lieftinck 1931), with the type species Epophthalmia vittata. At present, genus Epophthalmia consists of six described spe- cies and confined only in the Asian countries (Schorr and Paulson 2020). In India, genus Epophthalmia is represented by three species (Subramanian and Babu 2017). Epophthalmia vittata Burmeister, 1839 is a frequently reported species in India and recorded from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Copyright Tiple. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 128 Tiple & Payra Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (Tiple and Koparde 2015; Dawn and Chandra 2016; Subramanian et al. 2018). E. vittigera (Rambur, 1842) has only been recorded from Assam and West Bengal (Mitra 2002). In India, E. frontalis Selys, 1871 is known to occur in Western Ghats (Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu) and Eastern India (Assam, Meghalaya, Odisha) (Lieftinck 1931; Mitra 2002; Subramanian et al. 2018). Outside India, E. frontalis is reported from Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and Lao PDR (Sharma and Dow 2010; Subramanian et al. 2018). Until now, from the central Indian states only E. vittata was reported (Tiple et al. 2013; Tiple and Chandra 2013; Tiple and Koparde 2015 Dawn and Chandra 2016). In this present communication we report Epophthalmia frontalis for the first time from Madhya Pradesh of Central India, based on a single male collection. During an entomological survey on 22.IX.2014, a single male was collected using insect collection net and photographed from Seoni city of Madhya Pradesh (22.05724 N, 79.548397 E, 614 m a.s.l) (Fig. 1). The specimen was killed by gently A C B F D E H G Figure 1. Morphological comparision of male Epophthalmia frontalis Selys (A-E) and Epophthalmia vittata Burmeister, 1839 (F-G). A - Habitus of E. frontalis; B - Face of E. frontalis in dorso frontal view); C - Right fore and hind wing of E. frontalis; D - Caudal appendages of E. frontalis in dorsal view; E - Caudal appendages of E. frontalis in lateral view; F - Habitus E. vittata; G - Face of E. vittata in dorso frontal view; H - S4-S10 and caudal appendages of E. vittata (Photos: Ashish D. Tiple). First Record of Epophthalmia frontalis Selys, 1871 129 pressing the thorax and kept in 70 % alcohol for preservation. The individual was perched on a tree branch about 1m above the ground. The habitat was characterized by a large water body amid of surrounding shrub vegetations and secondary forest. Hitherto E. frontalis is only known from some places of Western Ghats and Eastern India (Subramanian et al. 2018). Thus our present report confirms the first occurrence record of this species from Central India. E. frontalis can be distin- guished from closely allied species E. vittata by the presence of two widely separated triangular yellow spots on superior surface of the frons, where in E. vittata there is a heart shaped central yellow spot (Figs 1B, C & G). Also, in E. frontalis, the length of inferior caudal appendage is greater than the superior one (Lieftinck 1931 Fraser 1936). A few taxonomic ambiguities may arise from the description of Asahina (1987). In the description of E. frontalis, from Thailand, Asahina (1987) mentioned that, the yellow spots at the base of the labrum, on the postclypeus and the lateral and top of the antefrons, may vary between individuals and also in the same indi- vidual as he matures. In the drawn images mentioned in Asahina (1987), the yellow spots on the top of the frons are not separated, they look like a heart shaped single spot. But according to Lieftinck (1931) and Fraser (1936), the presence of two widely separated yellow spots on superior surface of the frons is one of the key characters to distinguish E. frontalis from E. vittata. Therefore, to clarify such taxonomic ambigu- ities, we think that further revision of the South and Southeast Asian Epophthalmia species is necessary, particularly in the case of E. vittata and E. frontalis. Our present report may prove to be a valuable citation record and surely will help to understand the distribution of this less known, large Macromiid dragonfly. The need for fur- ther distributional records for this species has already been indicated by Sharma and Dow (2010), in order to implement conservation strategies. Therefore, further sampling is required to discover new localities, to understand population status and distribution patterns of this species in Indian region as well as in other South and Southeast Asian countries. References Asahina S (1987) A list of the Odonata recorded from Thailand, Part XVIII. Corduliidae 2. Kontyu 55(4): 699–720. Dawn P, Chandra K (2016) Ten new records of Odonata from Chhattisgarh state, India (Odonata: Aeshnidae, Libellulidae, Macromiidae, Coenagrionidae, Platycnemididae). Notulae Odonatologicae 8(7): 218–221. Fraser FC (1936) The fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma, Odonata — Vol. III. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London, 461 pp. Lieftinck MA (1931) A revision of genusEpophthalmia Burm. (Odonata: Corduliinae). Treubia 13: 21–80. Mitra TR (2002) Geographical distribution of Odonata (Insecta) of Eastern India. Memoirs of Zoological Survey of India 19(9): 1–208. 130 Tiple & Payra Schorr M, Paulson D (2020) World Odonata list. University of Puget Sound. Accessed at https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity- resources/dragonflies/world-odonata-list2/, 16 February 2020. Sharma G, Dow RA (2010) Epophthalmia frontalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T169181A6576838. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS. T169181A6576838.en Subramanian KA, Babu R (2017) Checklist of Odonata (Insecta) of India. Version 3.0. www. zsi.gov.in. 1–54. Subramanian KA, Emiliyamma KG, Babu R, Radhakrishnan C, Talmale SS (2018) Atlas of Odonata (Insecta) of the Western Ghats (Published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata), 417 pp. Tiple AD, Andrew RJ, Subramanian KA, Talmale SS (2013) Odonata of Vidarbha region, Maharashtra state, Central India. Odonatologica 42(3): 237–245. Tiple AD, Chandra K (2013) Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insecta, Odonata) of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh States, India. Care 4Nature 1(1): 2–11. Tiple AD, Koparde P (2015) Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insecta, Odonata) of Maharashtra States, India. Journal of Insect Science 15(1): 1–10..
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